Doing justice : young people’s representations of the Murray-Darling Basin

The business of helping children to grow up as ‘custodians’, or ‘future managers’ of the Murray-Darling Basin is not simple, and that single sources of information and ways of seeing the environment are not enough. Children (and adults) need to be able to relate individually, emotionally and aesthetically to their places if they are to learn to love them. However, they also need access to a variety of ways of thinking and seeing those same places if they are to be able to take action to sustain them – action that inevitably involves forms of communication with their fellow citizens. This chapter documents the writing and art program Special Forever, with its focus on communications, as an important intervention into promoting eco-social sustainability.

Thermal stability of the soil minerals destinezite and diadochite Fe3+2(PO4)(SO4)(OH)·6H2O - implications for soils in bush fires

Thermogravimetry combined with evolved gas mass spectrometry has been used to ascertain the stability of the soil minerals destinezite and diadochite. These two minerals are identical except for their morphology. Diadochite is amorphous whereas destinezite is crystalline. Both minerals are found in soils. It is important to understand the stability of these minerals because soils are subject to bush fires especially in Australia. The thermal analysis patterns of the two minerals are similar but not identical. Subtle differences are observed in the DTG patterns. For destinezite, two DTG peaks are observed at 129 and 182°C attributed to the loss of hydration water, whereas only a broad peak with maximum at 84°C is observed for diadochite. Higher temperature mass losses at 685°C for destinezite and 655°C for diadochite, based upon the ion current curves, are due to sulphate decomposition. This research has shown that at low temperatures the minerals are stable but at high temperatures, as might be experienced in a bush fire, the minerals decompose.